The Choice of Valentines
The Choise of Valentines; or The merie ballad of Nash his dildo (Nashe's Dildo),Duncan-Jones, Katherine. Ungentle Shakespeare: Scenes from His Life. The Arden Shakespeare. 2001. page 57. is an erotic poem by Thomas Nashe, thought to have been composed around 1592 or 1593. Overview The poem survives in 3 extant manuscript versions.Nicholl, Charles. A Cup of News: The Life of Thomas Nashe. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984, 90–91. It recounts in the 1st person a sexual encounter in a brothel between the narrator, Tomalin, and his lover, Mistress Frances. The poem contains the most detailed description of a dildo in Renaissance literature, and constitutes the first known use of the word "dildo", though the word may derive ultimately from popular ballads. The Choise of Valentines appears to have been 1st published only in 1899, in an edition limited to subscribers and apparently intended for collectors of pornography. Nicholl, Charles. A Cup of News: The Life of Thomas Nashe. Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1984. page 294. In 1905, Ronald B. McKerrow included the poem in his edition of Nashe's works. Compared to other such works it is a decent example of Elizabethan pornography, and does not descend into anything terribly nasty. It’s certainly not deserving of the stern disapprobation it has attracted over the years.Thomas Nashe, Wikipedia, December 22, 2017, Wikimedia Foundation. Web, Feb. 16, 2018. In the prologue, Nashe dedicates the poem to “the right honorable the Lord S.” It has been suggested that The Choice of Valentines was written possibly for the private circle of Ferdinando Stanley, 5th Earl of Derby (then known as Lord Strange).Charles Nicholl, ‘Nashe , Thomas (bap. 1567, d. c.1601)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 :‘His panegyric to ‘thrice noble Amyntas’ (Pierce Penilesse, Works, 1.243–5), written in mid-1592, is taken to refer to Ferdinando Stanley, Lord Strange. The phrasing—‘private experience’, ‘benefits received’, and so on—suggests he had already enjoyed the favours of this popular nobleman, as did many writers, among them Marlowe and Kyd, who were ‘writing for his plaiers’ about 1591 (BL, Harley MS 6849, fol. 218)...It was also for Lord Strange (‘Lord S’) that Nashe wrote the mildly obscene verses known as ‘The Choise of Valentines’ or ‘Nash his Dildo’ (Works, 3.403–16), described by Gabriel Harvey in early 1593 as ‘thy unprinted packet of bawdye and filthy rimes’ (Works of Gabriel Harvey, 2.91). It has alternatively been suggested that “Lord S.” refers to the Earl of Southampton, Shakespeare’s patron,Nashe, Thomas. The Unfortunate Traveller. or, The life of Jacke Wilton. The Percy Reprints, no. 1, edited by H.F.B. Brett-Smith. Oxford Basil Blackwell. 1920. page 3. https://archive.org/details/unfortunatetrave00nashuoft just as Nashe had inscribed The Unfortunate Traveler, to “Lord Henry Wriothesley Earl of Southampton”.Nashe, Thomas. The Unfortunate Traveller. or, The life of Jacke Wilton. The Percy Reprints, no. 1, edited by H. F. B. Brett-Smith. Oxford Basil Blackwell. 1920. page 3. https://archive.org/details/unfortunatetrave00nashuoft Sams, Eric. The Real Shakespeare Retrieving the early years, 1564–1594. Yale University Press. 1995. page 108. Synopsis The Choice of Valentines describes the Valentine's Day visit of a young man named "Tomalin" to his lover, "Mistris Francis". As it is Valentine's Day, Tomalin goes to seek Frances where she lives in the country, but discovers that she has been driven away by the local authorities and now resides in a brothel in the city. He enters the brothel, posing as a customer, and is offered other women by its Madame, but it is his lover that Tomalin really wants to see, even though it will cost him more. Having paid 10 gold pieces for her favors, Tomalin makes his way towards his erotic goal. ::And make me happie, stealing by degrees. ::First bare hir legs, then creepe up to her knees ... The object of his desire, "A pretty rising womb", is revealed. Unfortunately Tomalin finds the moment so exciting that he "spends" his all before the "fight" has begun. Mistress Frances is disappointed and does what she can to revive things. ::"Unhappyie me," quoth she, "and wilt not stand? ::Com, let me rubb and chafe it with my hand!" She perseveres in arousing him, is successful, and they make love. This begins a lengthy and witty erotic passage. During intercourse, she admonishes Tomalin to slow down and sets a rhythm more amenable to her own sexual gratification. Tomalin eventually climaxes, and his lover appears to climax as well, but soon expresses that she is not fully satisfied. Mistress Frances then decides to take matters into her own hands, and reaches for the device of the poem's informal title, Nashe's Dildo. ::My little dildo shall suplye their kind, ::A knave that moves as light as leaves by winde; ::That bendeth not, nor fouldeth anie deale, ::But stands as stiff as he were made of steele, ::And plays at peacock twixt my leggs right blythe.Project Gutenberg eBook of The Choise of Valentines, by Thomas Nash http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17779/17779-h/17779-h.htm#l64 This poem comes to an end with Tomalin ranting against the “Eunike dilldo” that has taken his place. Criticism The Choise of Valentines was sharply criticised for its obscenity by contemporary authors. In 1598 Joseph Hall attacked a contemporary poet, or poets, for describing in detail the activities of prostitutes ("beastly rites of hyred Venerie"). He does not name the culprit(s) but concludes "Nay, let the Divell, and Saint Valentine(sic)/ Be gossips to those ribald rymes of thine."(Virgidemiarum I, ix,35-6) In his introduction to Hall's Poems, Arnold Davenport comments: "That there is an attack on Nashe at the end of the satire is, I think, certain..." John Davies of Hereford, in his Paper's Complaint (Scourge of Folly) mentioned the poem, and declared that "good men's hate did it in pieces tear;" but whether the work met this fate in manuscript or print Davies leaves uncertain. In his New Letter of Notable Contents, Gabriel Harvey denounced Nash for emulating Aretino's licentiousness.Lee, Sidney (1894) "Nash, Thomas (1567-1601)" in Lee, Sidney Dictionary of National Biography 40 London: Smith, Elder, 1894, 101-109. Wikisource, Web, Feb. 16, 2018. As late as 1894, Sidney Lee was denouncing it in the Dictionary of National Biography as "a narrative poem of the boldest indecency," and a "shameless performance." The poem is of particular interest to literary scholars concerned with late Elizabethan representations of gender and sexuality. Ian Moulton reads the poem as expressing anxieties about masculine sexuality, including men's inability to satisfy women and women's sexual autonomy in taking their pleasure into their own hands. Moulton also describes how several of the extant manuscripts differ widely from the more complete Petyt version, 3 of them omitting entirely the long description of the dildo, and 1 of these being partially written in cipher. A Choise of Valentines is a complex poem: Boika Sokolova writes, "For all its explicitness, . . . the poem manages to diffuse the pornographic through sparkling wit, literary allusion and self-conscious mock-seriousness." References External links ;Poem * Full text of the poem online ;About *The Choise of Valentines, Or the Merie Ballad of Nash His Dildo at John Coulthart Feb 14, 2011 Category:1590s poems Category:British pornography Category:English poems Category:Erotic poetry Category:Works by Thomas Nashe